Formatting Standards

You can apply to join any wiki in the Wikids project, (scroll down and click on the 'join' link), or you can create your own wiki and have it added to the project.

Either way, for the integration of your work, it must have a method of navigation that is compatible with the rest of the project. Templates and graphics are available to help you implement Wikids navigation.

Compatible navigation allows you to access other topics seamlessly from your own topics, and it allows others to access yours.

Wikids is a system that aims to cater for children of any age, ability or background. This means that it must do its best to be as accessible as possible, without 'talking down' to its audience. The following notes describe the rationale behind the navigation system and presentation standards.

Pages should be as uncluttered as possible, featuring only relevant content and simple, standardized navigation controls.
Pages should not contain too much content. This can be off-putting, and adults, let alone children, rarely scroll down a page to access the content below the first screenful. Instead, a topic should be presented as a chain of small one-screen pages, linked together by 'Next' and 'Back' links.
The content should therefore be couched in the language that is as simple as possible, yet sufficient to communicate the concepts and knowledge involved.
The text should be formatted for ease of reading, in a suitable font. Line breaks should be used to break up blocks of text so that automatic line breaks do not occur in the middle of a phrase. Preferably, they should occur at the end of complete sentences.
Links within the content should preferably be images rather than text.
Links within the content, and the special '+More' link, should open pages in new windows or tabs. This prevents children from wandering off on link trails, losing track of where they were.

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